WE ARE OF A TRIBE

[Lisa Walford]

It is a fine morning, this Wednesday, May 20, after pranayama. We sat, mindful, heart filled, tuning into each sensory organ and its associated element, as if each could enable a qualitative experience of loving kindness, compassion and gentling the mind. We often orient our practice around the felt sense of the body and breath. Today, we acknowledged that the mind is, in yoga, considered a sensory organ. We began with the breath and smell, mouth/tongue and taste, ears and hearing sound, eyes and seeing, insight, skin and touch, and the mind, aware, attentive. 

The thirty third sutra of the YOga Sutras of Patanjali offers a meditation technique, a practice to cultivate loving kindness - maitri; compassion - karuna; sypathetic joy or honoring of one another - mudito; and equanimity - upekshanam. When we lean into these qualities, practice aligning our attitude with these mental orientations, our heart will rest more fully in grace - sukha, a sweet place. 

This poem inspired this class. When Mr Rios refers to the "sky", I thought of the sky of mind, how we recognize that clouds may come and go but the vastness of an open mind is like the sky... have a lovely week!

WE ARE OF A TRIBE –         Alberto Rios

We plant seeds in the ground

  And dreams in the sky,

Hoping that, someday, the roots of one

  Will meet the upstretched limbs of the other.

It has not happened yet. Still,

  Together, we nod unafraid of strangers.

Inside us, we know something about each other:

  We are all members of the secret tribe of eyes

Looking upward,

  Even as we stand on uncertain ground.

Up there, the dream is indifferent to time,

  Impervious to borders, to fences, to reservations.

This sky is our greater home.

  It is the place and feeling we have in common.

This place requires no passport.

  The sky will not be fenced.

Traveler, look up (look in). Stay awhile.

Know that you always have a home here.